February 28, 2025

 

US to invest up to US$1 billion to fight bird flu

 

 

The United States will invest up to US$1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, as well as increase imports of eggs in an effort to drive down high prices, US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said on February 26.

 

A three-year bird flu outbreak in US poultry has killed 166 million chickens since 2022, according to data by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

 

The virus has also infected nearly 1,000 dairy herds and almost 70 people, including one who died, since early 2024.

 

The USDA will spend up to US$500 million to provide free biosecurity audits to farms and US$400 million to increase payment rates to farmers who need to kill their chickens due to bird flu, Rollins said at a conference of state agriculture officials.

 

In a February 26 Wall Street Journal column, Rollins said some of the money will come from cuts to USDA spending by the Department of Government Efficiency. But on a call with reporters later in the day, Rollins' chief of staff, Kailee Tkacz Buller, said the money was coming from the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation, a discretionary pool of funding available to the secretary.

 

The agency did not immediately clarify the discrepancy.

 

The USDA is exploring vaccines for chickens but is not yet authorising their use, Rollins said. The poultry industry is divided on whether to vaccinate chickens because of potential trade implications.

 

"It could be a solution, but to push that out now and require it, we're just not ready," Rollins said of vaccines when speaking to reporters at the White House on Februay 26.

 

Some industry groups expressed relief on a February 26 call with Rollins that the agency did not move to require vaccines, said Rick Phillips, director of poultry professional services veterinarians for drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, who was on the call.

 

"There was a little bit of a sigh that they didn't move fast on certain things like immediately going to vaccination until we better understand the nature of what we're dealing with," he said. The company received a US license in 2023 for a bird flu vaccine for chickens.

 

The US President Donald Trump administration plans to increase imports and decrease exports of eggs to boost domestic supply and combat record high egg prices, Rollins said. Turkey has said it will export 15,000 tonnes of eggs to the US through July.

 

This year, Turkey is expected to supply about 420 million eggs to the US, up from about 70 million normally, Buller said on the press call.

 

Egg prices have nearly doubled since last year. Scant supply is leading some consumers to "panic buy," said Virginia Tech economist Jadrian Wooten in an email.

 

- Reuters